abstract: Research on government innovation has focused on identifying factors that contribute to higher levels of innovation adoption. Even though various factors have been tested as contributors to high levels of innovation adoption, the independent variables have been predominantly contextual and community characteristics. Previous empirical studies shed little light on chief executive officers' (CEOs) attitudes, values, and behavior. Result has also varied with the type of innovation examined. This research examined the effect of CEOs' attitudes and behaviors, and institutional motivations on the adoption of sustainability practices in their municipalities. First, this study explored the relationship between the adoption level of sustainability practices in local government and CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes (i.e. risk taking, proactiveness, and innovativeness) and discovery skills (i.e. associating, questioning, experimenting, observing, and networking) that have not been examined in prior research on local government innovation. Second, the study explored the impact of organizational intention to change and isomorphic pressures (i.e., coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures) and the availability and limit of organizational resources on the early adoption of innovations in local governments. Third, the study examines how CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes and discovery skills, and institutional motivations account for high and low sustaining levels of innovation over time by tracking how much their governments have adopted innovations from the past to the present. Lastly, this study explores their path effects CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes, discovery skills, and isomorphic pressures on sustainability innovation adoption. This is an empirical study that draws on a survey research of 134 CEOs who have influence over innovation adoption in their local governments. For collecting data, the study identified 264 municipalities over 10,000 in population that have responded to four surveys on innovative practices conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in past eight years: the Reinventing local government survey (2003), E-government survey (2004), Strategic practice (2006), and the Sustainability survey (2010). This study combined the information about the adoption of innovations from four surveys with CEOs' responses in the current survey. Socio-economic data and information about variations in form of government were also included in the data set. This study sheds light on the discovery skills and institutional isomorphic pressures that influence the adoption of different types of innovations in local governments. This research contributes to a better understanding of the role of administrative leadership and organizational isomorphism in the dynamic of innovation adoption, which could lead to improvements in change management of organizations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2013

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / A presente investigaÃÃo apresenta as geotecnologias como instrumentaÃÃo capaz de tornar mais eficiente a gestÃo pÃblica. O municÃpio de Icapuà foi o cenÃrio local escolhido para a aplicaÃÃo da proposta. Objetivando mostrar que informaÃÃes sistematizadas e espacialmente referenciadas, atravÃs da representaÃÃo de cartografia temÃtica, e de sistemas de informaÃÃes, contribuem positivamente para a gestÃo pÃblica, durante o desenvolvimento da tese, foi construÃdo e publicado o Atlas de IcapuÃ, e projetado o Sistema de InformaÃÃes GeogrÃficas â SIG para o municÃpio. A cartografia foi elaborada atravÃs da vetorizaÃÃo manual de imagens com resoluÃÃo de 50 cm, detalhadamente, permitindo a plotagem de mapas temÃticos do municÃpio como um todo, e das comunidades, em escalas ampliadas. As escalas dos mapas produzidos variam entre 1:5.000 e 1:150.000. Dados SRTM foram utilizados para a obtenÃÃo de dados altimÃtricos e geraÃÃo de MDT, e a Geologia e Geomorfologia foram representadas com base na interpretaÃÃo das imagens e em estudos desenvolvidos por MEIRELES & SANTOS (2011), que tratam da evoluÃÃo geomorfolÃgica da planÃcie costeira de IcapuÃ. A tese de que as geotecnologias configuram importante ferramenta para a gestÃo pÃblica, procurou evidenciar, atravÃs da cartografia produzida e do SIG, os ecossistemas costeiros, setores em processo erosivo, Ãreas de risco potencial, zonas adequadas à expansÃo urbana, Ãreas de preservaÃÃo, e identificar as intervenÃÃes que provocam perdas de biodiversidade e as aÃÃes de conservaÃÃo que podem ajudar na recuperaÃÃo de ambientes degradados. / This research presents the Geotechnology as instrumentation capable of making more efficient public management. The municipality of Icapuà was the local scenario chosen for the implementation of the proposal. Aiming to show that systematized information and spatially referenced through the thematic cartography, and representation of information systems, contribute positively to the public administration, during the development of the thesis, was built and published the Atlas of IcapuÃ, and designed the geographic information System â GIS for the municipality. Cartography was prepared through the manual vectorization of images with a resolution of 50 cm, detail, enabling plotting of thematic maps of the municipality as a whole, and communities, in enlarged scales. The scales of maps produced vary between 1:5,000 and 1:150,000. SRTM data were used for the altimetrics data acquisition and generation of MDT, and the Geology and Geomorphology were represented on the basis of the interpretation of images and in studies developed by MEIRELES & SANTOS (2011), dealing with the geomorphological evolution of the coastal plain of IcapuÃ. The thesis that the Geotechnologies configure important tooling for the public administration, sought to highlight, through cartography produced and GIS, the coastal ecosystems, sectors in erosive process, areas of potential risk, appropriate urban expansion areas, preservation areas, and identify interventions that lead to loss of biodiversity and the conservation actions that can help in the recovery of degraded environments.

Orientador: Maria Teresa Françoso / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T19:12:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Domingues_CristianeVaz_M.pdf: 1583314 bytes, checksum: 4589942c04127647dd6af8be4376f1be (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Este trabalho destaca a importância dos municípios recuperarem sua capacidade gerencial utilizando ferramentas e instrumentos capazes de disponibilizar informações atualizadas sobre o território municipal, proporcionando maior segurança nas tomadas de decisão e no cumprimento dos objetivos e metas estabelecidos pela administração. Apresenta a importância da estruturação de um banco de dados com informações confiáveis e manutenções sistemáticas, ressaltando o valor de se trabalhar com bases cartográfica e alfanumérica atualizadas. Discorre sobre as estratégias adotadas pela prefeitura de Santo André ¿ SP na implantação do Sistema de Informações Geográficas, apresentando as etapas realizadas e alguns resultados obtidos. Aborda as dificuldades e resistências encontradas no processo de implantação de um SIG. Como resultado, apresenta uma proposta básica de banco de dados para prefeituras, bem como as estratégias de implantação de um SIG e finaliza ressaltando a importância da utilização desta tecnologia num processo de modernização da gestão municipal / Abstract: The present work highlights how important it is for municipalities to improve their managing know-how using tools and instruments which can make updated information about the municipal territory available, leading the administration to a more assured decision making and established goal accomplishing. It presents the importance of building a framework to produce a database with reliable information and continuous maintenance, stressing the importance of working with updated cartographic and alphanumeric bases. It discourses about the strategies adopted by the municipality of Santo André ¿ SP along the implementation of a Geographic Information System (GIS), presenting the accomplished stages and some results. There is also an approach to the difficulties and resistances found during the process of establishing a GIS. As a result, it presents a basic approach to a database for municipalities and strategies to create a GIS and finalizes highlighting the importance of using this technology together with a broader modernizing process for municipal managing / Mestrado / Transportes / Mestre em Engenharia Civil

M.Ed. (Curriculum Policy Evaluation) / Critical thinking is an essential component and graduate attribute addressed within higher education. Students in higher education institutions are expected to possess and display certain levels of critical thinking skills. They, therefore, are expected upon completion of their programmes in higher education, among others, to demonstrate personal and process competencies, and capacity to effectively interact in the world of work, as well as in a continuous changing global context by demonstrating their ability to identify and solve real world problems and make decisions using critical and creative thinking in their fields of study. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of integrated assessments in fostering critical thinking in an under-graduate programme in Public Management. This study is conducted within the intepretivist and qualitative paradigm of social inquiry, with the goal of gaining a deep level of understanding of university lecturers’ experiences, multiple perceptions and meanings of integrated assessments and critical thinking in their daily teaching and learning context. This was done in an attempt to gain valuable insights on the development and design of integrated assessment tools and instruments that incorporate critical thinking ...

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Doctor Legum - LLD / Apartheid local government failed to deliver services to the people of South Africa. Instead, it created huge spatial/settlement distortions, economic disparities, skewed urban economic logic, and massive service and infrastructure backlog. This was not the case in apartheid white local government owing to the fact that it was built, partially, on the Weberian model of bureaucracy. With the end of apartheid and the re-incorporation of previously excluded communities into the mainstream of the civil service, there was an urgent need for rapid delivery of services in order to rectify the ravages of apartheid. However, the usefulness of the Weberian model in efficiently delivering services was open to question. Its continued insistence on qualifications and practical experience would have perpetuated the exclusion of the African majority who had been denied participation in the political and economic life. The Weberian bureaucracy, therefore, stood in the way of the new democratic government's intention to transform and deracialise the public service. As a result, the New Public Management (the NPM) was introduced as a policy in both the upper spheres and local government with the aim of ensuring rapid service delivery and deracialising public administration.

The use of performance information is the backbone of performance management. Performance information use refers to the willingness of public managers or other relevant stakeholders to incorporate quantitative or qualitative data in their decision-making. Both routine and nonroutine performance information is considered essential in managers’ decision making. Understanding the organizational factors that motivate public managers to use performance information is an important topic in the literature and practice of performance management. Although the number of studies on information use is growing, little is known about the impact of Organizational Social Capital (OSC). OSC is composed of the sub-dimensions of social interaction, trust, and shared goals. The main argument of this study is that OSC fosters performance information use in public administrations. It is expected that departments with high levels of organizational social capital are more likely to use both routine and nonroutine performance information. To test the hypothesized effect, department heads, middle managers, and other individuals with a supervisory role from 513 Florida County Government departments were surveyed. Furthermore, interviews, focus groups, and analysis of secondary data were performed to provide the context and the narrative surrounding the hypothesized effect. Analysis of the survey data reveals evidence in support of the hypothesized effects. Furthermore, the comparative case study analysis shows the existence of substantial differences in the history, background, organizational culture, and management between the two counties. The main findings show how reorganization processes as well as a lack of leadership may have detrimental effects to organizational social capital. Organizational social capital could be considered a relevant predictor of performance information use and thus deserves further attention from both researchers and practitioners.

This study examines how public management practitioners in small and medium-sized Florida cities perceive globalization and its impact on public management practice. Using qualitative analysis, descriptive statistics and factor analysis methods, data obtained from a survey and semi-structured interviews were studied to comprehend how public managers view the management and control of their municipalities in a time of globalization. The study shows that the public managers’ perceptions of globalization and its impact on public management in Florida’s small-medium cities are nuanced. Whereas some public managers feel that globalization has significant impacts on municipalities’ viability, others opine that globalization has no local impact. The study further finds that globalization processes are perceived as altering the public management functions of decision-making, economic development and service delivery in some small-medium cities in Florida as a result of transnational shifts, rapidly changing technologies, and municipalities’ heightened involvement in the global economy. The study concludes that the globalization discourse does not resonate among some public managers in Florida’s small-medium cities in ways implied in extant literature.

The Diploma Work analyses problems connected with the stimulation of creative invention in managerial work of managerial employees at public administration of Municipality at Sternberk.It contains advancement proposals and strategies motivating managerial employees, which will increase the productivity of all employees and improve working relationship between the management and employees.

This study aims to examine if and how New Public Management have affected trust between citizen and the schooling system in Sweden, and how we can understand New Public Managements effects upon trust. The study uses statistical data from national surveys (SOM-institute) to analyze how trust towards the schooling system has evolved over the years 1986-2000. From the theoretical frameworks of Niklas Luhmann and Bo Rothstein, New Public Management is analyzed as to how it might affect trust. The study shows that New Public Management possibly have had an effect on trust between citizens and the schooling system. Also the study concludes that the reforms contain risk factors that poses a real threat towards the trusting relationship between citizen and state. Although factors have been discerned they fail to explain to a satisfying degree how they might affect the schooling system and more extensive research is required as to how we can understand New Public Managements effects upon trust.